


writing a cheque with your mouth you can cash with your ass

by ChookTingle



Category: Captain Marvel (2019), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 02:44:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19432291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChookTingle/pseuds/ChookTingle
Summary: When Gamora was sacrificed for the Soul Stone, certain debts were left unpaid.The universe rights itself.





	writing a cheque with your mouth you can cash with your ass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SkyRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyRose/gifts).



They're making tracks away from Xandar in the newly refurbished Milano, feeling pretty pleased with themselves, when a figure zooms past them and pulls up in front of the cockpit.

Yes, a figure, resembling human female. Not a vessel. They're two systems away by then, and there are no other craft on the scans; they assume she's using the most sophisticated propulsion technology in the galaxy, which goes a long way in persuading Rocket not to fire on her. "If it's undamaged, we might be able to steal it, and if she can do this, she may be more than a match for us anyway," Peter reasons, with a touch of hysteria.

"Or she might be a client," Gamora offers.

The figure gives them two thumbs up, which brings Drax around; Peter has just taught him this gesture.

* * *

"I owe you one," Carol says, once they've let her inside.

"Yeah?" Peter asks, preening a little. "And who're you?"

"An old enemy of Ronan's," she explains. "I headed over to Xandar when I heard it was his next target. I didn't get there in time. You did."

"How did you become his enemy?" Drax wants to know.

"I chased him off my planet twenty years ago."

Rocket winces a split second ahead of Peter, in a very unenthusiastic ripple; it's the wrong answer. "Then you were too late for my planet, too," Drax says.

Carol takes in his appearance and seems to recognise his race. "I know," she says, softer this time. "I'm sorry. That's how I came to be chasing him."

"Well," Rocket breaks in, "you're late. So what have you come for?"

"Like I said," Carol says, "I owe you. So I came to let you know. If you need a favour, call on me."

Gamora doesn't have a high opinion of this new, unproven galaxy's Guardian who's admitted on her own that she's been late to two out of three parties. But she's wary of offending someone who acts as their own spacecraft and might not have been lying about facing off against Ronan alone. There's an easy solution.

"Should Xandar be in peril again," she says, "defend it."

Carol blinks, and Peter gives Gamora a disappointed look, like there was something else on the tip of his tongue. She shrugs. For Guardians of the Galaxy, they're not sticking around to do very much guarding. Someone ought to.

After a beat, Carol says, "Sure," and takes off again.

For a split second, Gamora feels disappointed, like there's something else she wishes she'd said.

* * *

They look her up later. Turns out her story about Ronan wasn't an empty boast. Turns out maybe Peter owes her a favour, instead of the other way around.

"I wish we'd recruited her," Peter says.

"It would have been interesting," Gamora says, and to her own surprise, that's not a deflection. It's agreement.

* * *

After the whole mess with Peter's father, Peter says, "Well, at least there might still be one decent Celestial in the galaxy."

"I do not think that is what Carol Danvers is," Gamora says. Though there's a certain confidence in common.

They don't run into her again.

* * *

They don't run into her again until Titan, when, to be more technically accurate, she runs into them. Into Peter's fist as he's about to ram it into Thanos' skull.

She blazes in between them like a star. "What the fuck," says Peter, raw and raging and lacking anyone who can temper him.

"Peter Quill," she says. "Listen to me."

He doesn't; the others, too, ignore her, because they're focused on the gauntlet, on Thanos stirring confusedly under Mantis' control, on their one chance in millions upon millions to get this right.

But he's so angry that even the gauntlet separated from Thanos' arm feels like a hollow victory.

"You're late," he says, "again."

"I know," she says. "But I'm not too late," and she turns to Doctor Strange.

* * *

The others are present for the ensuing discussion, but even Tony doesn't pretend to understand it. Carol's eyes light up from time to time - that is, they literally light up, and it seems she's drawing on her mysterious power to follow the scenarios Strange lays out for her with the Time Stone. Apparently, her powers and Strange's can combine to help them out. It's pretty unclear as to how. Peter feels like he's in almost as great a funk as Thanos until the moment she turns to him. "To get Gamora back, we need someone who cares for her at least as much as Thanos, and can withstand the power of the Stones."

"Yeah," Peter says dazedly. "That's me," Or it was.

Another rapidfire conversation disqualifies him. "I'm sorry," Carol says. "We can't twist time enough to send you into the Soul Stone's space with your Celestial powers intact. It has to be someone else."

Nebula twitches, but doesn't say anything. Right. No powers.

"How much did Thanos _care_ for her, anyway?" Peter bites it out. "You at least met her. Why can't it be you?"

"He thought he did," Nebula says, and if Peter was bitter, her tone drips acid that could burn all the way to a world's core.

But Carol seems to consider his suggestion. She looks at Strange again.

He gets that blurry look on his face that Peter's already starting to recognise - the one that means he's sorting through futures.

"You could," Strange says, and qualifies that when Peter draws breath. "You could come to care for her."

She doesn't look convinced. "You promised her," Peter reminds her. "You promised her you'd watch over Xandar."

Carol takes a deep breath herself. Her eyes are focused very far away. "Okay," she says. "Okay."

Back to Strange.

"Show me," she says. "Show me the futures in which I care about -" she stumbles and Peter doesn't know if it's disbelief or something else - "Gamora, daughter of Thanos, Guardian of the Galaxy."

* * *

_They're dancing together. Some of Peter's music that feels more meaningful to Gamora coming from Carol._

_They're flying together. Co-pilots in synch, dipping and darting and defying the three dimentions of space._

_They're fighting._

_They're sparring_

_They're..._

* * *

In the pavilion of red and amber light, a child sits, and then she stands up, and as she stands she grows into her adult self - features flowing like water - as another woman enters the space.

As their hands touch, Gamora sees memories that aren't, because they haven't come to pass. Sees herself arguing with Carol, laughing with Carol. Kissing her.

Dancing with her.

They wink out of the space with a glint like light catching on the facet of a gem.

* * *

This time, Carol isn't too late for Xandar.

* * *

Peter acts kind of weird for a few weeks, and not just in his incomprehensible Earth ways. Gamora isn't paying a lot of attention, because there's so much else to pay attention to. The way her _body works_. Some of having died is a bit blurry, but she remembers the pavilion.

She remembers every moment of falling.

She remembers Carol, and she grins to catch Carol's grins. "I guess we should get to know each other," Carol says. "Seeing as we're both in the business of guarding the galaxy."

"That," Gamora says, "is a very good idea."


End file.
